Sylvester, WV
The Problems of Sylvester
Thursday, August 31st, 2006
Things done to bring attention to the coal dust problems in the Town of Sylvester, West Virginia, and to seek a solution to stop the problem:
Compiled by Pauline Canterberry and Mary Miller, March 2006.
1. In 1997 Elk Run Mining Company, a subsidary of Massey Energy, applied for a petition to install a preparation plant at their Elk Run Facility, knowing the prevailing winds in the Town of Sylvester area traveled west to east which would bring it directly over the town from the facility. The Mayor of Sylvester and the Town Council met with the Elk Run Mining officials and asked them not to install the preparation plant at that facility. Also, a meeting was called with the DEP (Department of Environmental Protection) in November 1997, asking them not to allow the permit. They were given a petition bearing the names of 75% of the Sylvester residents opposing the permit. The DEP issued the permit and the facility went into operation on in April 1998. A mountain bluff was removed which protected the town from its present facility, and the preparation plant sat on a hill within 700 feet of the nearest residents.
2. Within a month of operating, our town began to be covered with coal dust night and day. The facility operated 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Town people began calling complaining to the DEP. For two years our complaints were ignored.
3. Finally DEP inspector Bill Cook (now deceased) began to write violations against Elk Run Mining. After three violations without any relief, we demanded a hearing before the DEP. At this hearing Elk Run Mining pleaded good cause showing, an inadequate screen was placed before the plant which didn’t begin to catch the coal dust, they planted pine trees in front of the facility which will take years to grow large enough to provide any protection, they installed a sprinkling system which, had they used it correctly, would have helped some, but it was only operated when the DEP inspectors were in the area. The Town still had no relief.
4. At this point, the coal dust not only covered the outside of our homes, but now was entering to the inside due to the fine consistency of the dust after being crushed inside the plant. We demanded a hearing before the office of Surface Mining to show video evidence of the coal dust. Homes and vehicles were covered with coal dust, as well as hugs billows of coal dust coming at us from the plant over the Town of Sylvester. With four members of the board present, all voted unanimously that Elk Run Mining was violating their permit and allowing coal dust to leave their facility and damage the residents in the Town of Sylvester. Elk Run was told to correct the problem at the hearing October 25, 2000. That order was appealed and we are still awaiting the Judge’s final decision on that hearing, which was July 3, 2001.
5. At this time, we decided to take our plight to the Legislature and ask for new coal dust laws to be made. We were told there was already Laws that protected the people, yet coal companies are not made to abide by this law, especially Massey Energy.
6. At this time, we decided to expose Elk Run Mining and Massey Energy for what they truely were, a corporation that harasses and destroys for their own personal greed and our politicians were refusing to uphold the West Virginia Laws because of being indebted to the coal corporations because of campaign contributions recieved from them.
7. We contacted the News Media to write stories and publish pictures of the destruction in Sylvester.
8. We continued to send mail to state and federal officials, only to be referred back to the DEP by form letters.
9. We joined environmental groups to expose Massey Energy. Coal River Mountain Watch in Whitesville, WV; Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition in Huntington, WV; and the West Virginia Organizing Project in Logan, WV.
Photo by Builder Levy
10. We joined protests against Massey Energy:
Massey Energy’s Charleston office
Massey Energy’s stockholder meeting, Richmond, VA
Massey Energy’s stockholder meeting, Charleston, WV
Massey Energy’s stockholder meeting, Chantilly, VA
Massey Energy Kanawha City office (tried to issue a list of demands to stop damages to Citizens, but were asked to leave the premises.)
Protested the President’s visit to Charleston to promote coal in WV
Joined Coal River Mountain Watch and Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition in law suit against Massey Energy owned Marfork Coal Company for black water spills into the Big Coal River, where Sylvester’s drinking water comes from. It is now in its second appeal to the Supreme Court with no decision.
11. In February, 2001, Sylvester residents filed a lawsuit against Elk Run Mining for damages to Property. We gathered Coal Dust samples from homes in Sylvester every seven (7) days for two and a half years, filming and documenting the trail. We filmed coal dust from Elk Run Mining flowing over from their facility and into the Town of Sylvester. We filmed coal dust being washed from homes and sidewalks, the attic of homes showing the accumulation of coal dust. We filmed balls of coal dust being emitted from the preperation plant and flowing into the air passage over Sylvester.
12. We attended meetings in Washington, DC and spoke at news conferences about the coal dust damages for citizens of southern West Virginia.
13. We fought overloaded Coal Trucks and got speed limits lowered in the Town of Sylvester.
14. We successfully fought a Synfuel Plant being built on Elk Run’s Mining facility.
15. We attended monthly meetings with Elk Run Mining officials seeking to end the dust problems.
16. We keep in constant contact with the DEP and Office of Air Quality about the conditions in Sylvester.
17. We sought and won the removal of a dam in Big Coal River at Elk Run Mining that had been built without a permit.
18. We gathered over 700 signatures on petitions to have Big Coal River rechanneled where mountaintop removal mining has filled it in with silt causing severe flooding.
19. We went on road tours through Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia showing power point presentations of damage caused to communities and citizens by mountaintop removal mining in West Virginia, seeking help from other State Legislatures to support the Shey-Polane Protection Clean Water Act.
20. We attended the Babcock-Reynolds Foundation Seminar seeking grant funding for Coal River Mountain Watch to enable them to continue their fight against mountaintop removal mining and its injustice to citizens being destroyed by it.
21. We contacted state representatives seeking warning systems to be placed in areas where sludge impoundments are built, in case of breakage.
22. We are serving as intervenors in a law suite against Marfork Coal Company for black water spills from their impoundment into Big Coal River where citizens’ drinking water comes from.
23. We campaigned during elections to elect politicians who aren’t paid by coal companies.
24. We protested in Appalachia, Virginia against a coal company who was working on an unpermitted mine site, causing the death of an innocent child in his sleep when a huge boulder came crushing down the mountain into his bedroom.
25. We protested a permit to install the second silo 100 feet from Marsh Fork Elementary School where the present silo is causing the children to become sick, also to prevent enlargement of the sludge impoundment above the school as the MSHA reports it already has leaks in it.
26. We requested changes in the permit at Elk Run Mining for an underground mine, to save the Town from further damages. These requests were granted.
27. We lobbied at West Virgina State Legislature for the Resolution for Sludge Safety project. The resolution was introduced.
28. We supported Coal River Mountain Watch in its nation Mountain Justice Summer movement.
29. We opposed a proposed settlement between DEP and subsidaries of Massey Energy, Inc.
November 16th, 2008 at 6:43 pm
Do you know what drives the WV economy? Do you know why you have lights on in your house? Do you like the dark? ….hate to tell you, but without coal WV would be in poverty. We are already one of the poorest states in the US. No coal would put WV at the top of that list….and you would not have any lights!
November 30th, 2008 at 2:17 am
The problems in sylvester and the coal river are horrible.My mother grew up in the 1970s and she showed state offials where coal mines where dumping sludge and diesel fuel in the coal river. My gradmother Betty Long has fought with elk run coal man times,mines need to be cleaned up.This is my opinion